South reigned supreme in area

With a 7-6 win over Westerville North on May 16, the Westerville South High School boys lacrosse team earned two trophies.

With a 7-6 win over Westerville North on May 16, the Westerville South High School boys lacrosse team earned two trophies.

South won the North-South helmet trophy and the Wildcats also were the first team to take home the Westerville Champion Cup, given to the team that is able to beat the other Westerville schools during the season.

South's win over North was its first since 2005 and it moved to 3-0 against Central with a 17-8 win over the Warhawks on May 9.

But the season ended last Saturday in the first round of the Division 1 tournament with an 16-5 loss to third-seeded Dublin Scioto. South was seeded sixth.

The Wildcats finished 7-10 overall and were second in the OCC-Ohio Division at 4-1 behind Olentangy (5-0) and ahead of North (3-2), Central (2-3), Olentangy Liberty (1-4) and New Albany 0-5.

The Wildcats will lose 10 seniors, including goalkeeper Justin Young, who will play for Presbyterian College next year. Other seniors are Kevin Ball, Michael Bjelovuk, David Fosselman, Nathan Merz, Jason Paselk,Vince Poissant, Nealon Richards,Trevor Sams and Matt Smith.

To lead the attack next season the Wildcats will look to junior Mack Morris and sophomore Brent Gonzalez. Also expected back are juniors Andy Hessler, James Jeffers, Matt King and Rickey Rano.

•North, which was seeded sixth for the Division I regional, lost to third-seeded Olentangy 13-11 last Saturday in the first round.

The Warriors finished 7-8 overall under first-year coach Adam Beasley and will lose 12 seniors. Beasley helped institute a faster-paced offense that set a record for goals-scored in a game in a 20-11 win over Central on April 18, but the change in philosophy required the coaches to pay most of their attention to the midfield where the transition from offense to defense occurs.

Next season should be different with most of the key components in the midfield coming back the focus will be on refining the defense and the attack.

Sophomores Brit Donahue, Kenny Macauley, Eric Soller and freshman Logan Coyle and Drew Hathaway are expected to solidify the midfield and any one of them could move out of the midfield to the attack like senior Connor Hamons did this year.

Hamons and senior Drew Williams were among the team's top scorers. Hamons, who will play at Ohio Wesleyan next year, led the Warriors with 27 goals and 17 assists and Williams had 18 goals and 11 assists.

"In my mind attack is going to be easy thing we're going to replace," Beasley said. "We usually find guys in the midfield and move them to the attack."

The Warriors will turn to junior Greg Hopkins to lead the offense. Hopkins was second on the team in scoring with 34 points (21 goals, 3 assists). Macauley (17 points, 10 goals, 7 assists), who was second-team all-region, and Hathaway (14 points, 12 goals, 2 assists) also will be top returning scorers.

Also expected back are juniors Alex Fuller, who is expected to take over for Hamons, Xavier Norris, Zach Sandusky and Jacob Stranges, sophomores John Haynes, Evan Matsumoto and freshman Gunner Dircks.

•Central, which was seeded eighth for its Division I regional, finished 8-8 after falling to top-seeded Worthington Kilbourne 20-0 in the first round last Saturday.

The Warhawks had to make an adjustment after losing their top three scorers from 2007, and they did it by tweaking the offensive philosophy to take advantage of their quickness.

The Warhawks opened 4-0 and relied on their defense, but by the end of the season off-field issues became more important than games.

On the way to the team bus for a game against Wellington on May 14 -- a 6-5 loss -- sophomore midfielder Tanner Ayle, coach Marc Ayle's son, was involved in a one-car accident in which he and a friend were injured. His friend, a student at Central, remains in serious condition.

"In the last four games we had other things were focusing on," coach Ayle said.

Through 12 games Tanner Ayle was fourth on the team in scoring with 27 points ( 16 goals, 11 assists). He is expected back.

The Warhawks will lose their top scorer in senior Ryan Schroeder, who through 12 games had 18 goals and 15 assists. They also will lose senior Nick Marburger, who had 10 goals and 16 assists.

Coach Ayle expects the defense to be solid again next year with the return of starters in junior Garrett Curtis and sophomores Kameren Curis and Matt Taflan. Junior goalkeeper Brad Schneider also should be back.

"We had an easier time against not as good of teams at the beginning and we got off to a good start," coach Ayle said. "We had a number of sophomores and a number of freshman that started and by the end had started to show some maturity."